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Sir Egg, I can't tell whether you really are curious. Your use of terms like "this kinda shit" and "plagiarism" leads me to believe that your mind is ...

@"Banno", @"sime" I know I've pointed this out before, but I think it's really important to keep in mind: Quine accepts the analytic/synthetic distinc...

Here is the difference I see between "red" and "square". If someone is in doubt about "red", they aren't going to say "But what does 'red' mean?" They...

This is really interesting. Does Franklin have to be a non-realist or a "non-theoretical-reasons" guy in order to hold out for agnosticism about a par...

Yes, this "circle problem" is very much in the spirit of the voluntarism/obligation debate. One question: by "demonstration," do you take these thinke...

Sure, different philosophers have different interests, and worry about different things. I understand this isn't the thread for you.

It would probably matter whether either partner was aware of the irrelevant distal cause. Matter in terms of how to handle it as a story, that is. If ...

I wonder if part of the problem lies in the choice of "red". I thought that picking an irreducible quale would help us see what's going on with "meani...

Part Two In his paper, Christopher Pincock gives two arguments that he says demonstrate that someone who adopts a realist epistemic stance must do so,...

Weirdly, this is what I was writing about to @"fdrake" when your post appeared. In that context, we looked at the idea of "cause" as a way out of stra...

Or, I'm guessing, a purely "rational/theoretical" basis à la Pincock. This is where the specter of strategic rationality becomes a bit frightening. I'...

Interesting. Can you give us a reference in the Analytics? Quite possibly, and it raises a subtle question about whether there is a thing called a "re...

Maybe I'm taking this too far, but is this another way of saying "We are blank slates, and can only learn from experience" i.e. empiricism? Are there ...

So embarrassing. Maybe I'll sleep for 20 years.

Ha! Argumentum ad tempus requiescendi. I will try to articulate the annoyance better, but probably not tonight, as the moon rises slowly over the Gulf...

No. So take me to the next step -- what does that tell us about "red"?

:lol:

I agree, because what else could a proper name refer to? Some "essence of Banno"? But I'm suggesting that a color name is different, because in additi...

I'm dying to know what your software misunderstood here! :grin: The passage you offer is very on-point. In the OP, I only devoted a single sentence to...

I think you are. I was "seeing the picture" up to this point, but you'll have to work harder to explain how use reduces to extension. I believe you st...

Starting with your final thought . . . I agree. The more I reflect on both papers, the more I wonder whether Chakravartty and Pincock really have the ...

This seems to conflate several issues. Why is my description of my red quale a private rule? What would be the (correct, presumably) use of a public r...

(It is like a chess problem, isn't it? :wink: ). So, turning to the colored beads: We agree that we know what "is red" and "is green" mean, sufficient...

I think so . . . Let me try it from the idea of qualia. I suppose you agree that, if I ask you to close your eyes and imagine "red," and then "green,"...

I'm glad it engaged you. I don't know; I only know of these two philosophers from reading the cited papers. An important question, though. I would ima...

I don't agree. What you say here is critical to the issues the OP raises. After all, Chakravartty himself refers to a realist commitment to scientific...

It's not so much a matter of being convinced. I feel as you did, in an earlier thread, where you said something to the effect of, I'm frustrated becau...

I understand. But of course you know that many religious people maintain that complete faith in God erases these fears and doubts. The Abraham story p...

Sorry, sometimes my sense of humor is obscure. Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling is famous, and kind of required reading if you're interested in the Ab...

OK. Since this thread focuses on comparing and contrasting two philosophers, I can see why it wouldn't interest you.

This, I think, is close to Chakravartty's sense. He specifies "minimal constraints of internal consistency and coherence” -- so, broadly speaking, log...

Oh, you never know. Might not be so obvious after all . . .

OK. And would you say that's a voluntary epistemic stance, in Chakravartty's sense?

We shouldn't assume that the Hebrew Scripture writers were unfamiliar with angst and doubt. The very question you ask is, I believe, why the story of ...

So would Chakravartty's view be correct, and Pincock's incorrect, as you understand it? That is, Pincock would be wrong in trying to argue for a parti...

Thanks for your thoughts on Chakravartty's paper -- I'm glad you were able to connect his ideas with your own perspective. "Where to go from here?" yo...

You haven't disrupted anything, no worries. I agree, this is in the same family as "epistemic stance," as used by Chakravartty and Pincock. (@"tim woo...

Yes, definitely related. An oldie but goldie, for sure. Why do you suppose it's yet unresolved, and continues to get new expressions in contemporary p...

I see the attractiveness of this position. But there's a synonymy problem still. {1,2,3} may be extensionally equivalent to "is red", but would you re...

Gotta get offline now but I'll keep in the conversation, very interesting.

Well, the need would be to bridge the gap between planets, which are physical objects, and statements about them, which are not, to say nothing of syn...

OK, let's fill this out. If planets and planètes have the same extension, then "The number of planets is greater than 7" means the same thing as "The ...

But are you entitled to the phrase "say the same thing" without explaining what it means? Synonymy again. Is this meant to be a brute fact? Some state...

I'm inclined to say that 'says the same thing as' is ordinary-language-speak for 'expresses the same proposition as'. The key idea in common is that t...

Just to be clear: Do you read the '=' sign here to mean 'says the same thing as' or 'expresses the same proposition as'? Or would this difference, if ...

This is a good question. What would you say?

If the name changes but she is still the very same person, then a name cannot be an essential property -- or, if you like, any sort of property. (Thou...

Or maybe it's necessary but not sufficient. In order to produce the kicking, some other factors have to be in play as well. Fair enough. I was definit...

I see the difficulties you're bringing up. But "exactly the same dream" is an unnecessarily high bar. What we're interested in is, e.g., whether physi...

Yes, a proper name is a convention. There is nothing to it beyond whatever a given community agrees is a sufficient "baptism." Hmm. I'm not so sure. T...